Sometimes I think things need to happen. This needed to happen- I found a video today through a friend on Facebook, C.M.J himself, that made me act. C.M.J is part of the local Minneapolis underground hip hop movement. I met him a few times a few summers back, he threw me a dope CD. This video is full of excitement, and I must admit the beat and flow leave me on the edge of my seat at the library (I am studying). Smooth.

I must run to class (a more in depth post to come later). This is worth a listen, don’t waste your time! Get on it!

I woke up knowing that today was going to be a special day for one reason in particular: it’s Jellyfish season. You definitely heard me right, the smack is back, and they’ve got a lead single from their forthcoming project The Art of Being Pulled Apart – which drops on December 6th.

I’ve been craving new material from Mr. Dix & Mr. Acciaioli since they dropped Gills and a Helmet and Sunflowers last year, and “The Character is Me” is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.

Propelled by The Great Mundane’s mesmerizing melodies, Dix spits an eye opening retrospective and philosophical narrative about his life experiences in the Midwest and how they’ve shaped him into the man that he is today living in Portland:

” I think that I’ve learned the simplest things last/every situation ain’t a riddle or ink splat/As a teacher I can spot the shittiest mishaps/and know just what to say to make a miserable kid laugh/a warrior/a worrier/performing like a mourning bird chirping to the chords of a Wurlitzer”

If you know Lucas Dix, then you know he loves Andre 3000 because he’s such a versatile emcee. When I listen to “The Character is Me”, the influence of Three Stacks is ubiquitous; not only does Dix deliver vivid verses, but he boldly steps out of his comfort zone and defiantly delivers the track’s hook. In doing so, he expands his vocal dexterity as an artist – something that even Andre 3000 could definitely respect.

Holy heat rock Batman! Brother Ali & Jake One have dropped an atomic bomb on my ears! A while back, I posted the first single off of Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color - “Stop The Press”. I wasn’t really too keen on the beat that Jake One had cooked up for “Stop The Press”, but “Mourning in America” is a much different story; Mr. Uno builds an emphatic ensemble that allows Brother Ali to vent about his views on war and violence in America, and to be quite frank, Ali’s not afraid to speak out:

“Overseas we can mutilate and mangle /Let me give you an example what our troops are coming back to /Cold cities where the youth are getting strangled /The community in peril and our future looking narrow/Your school already failed you /The boys in blue will nail you they salute you with a barrel /The streets are a certified dead zone /Decorated with chalk lines and headstones”

Every time I hear a new song from this album, it gets better and better; my anticipation for this album is off the charts, so September 18th can’t come soon enough. I – much like many of Ali’s fans – was nervous when I heard that Ant wasn’t going to have any production credits to his name on this album, but I think that this album is going to end up far better than I could have ever anticipated.

I was on Facebook today, and I randomly scrolled over the album cover because I thought it was just a track; sometimes I don’t know what I would do without Facebook because it seems like I always stumble across new music material via my news feed. I was completely oblivious to this, but apparently Murs & Fashawn are teaming up to release a full-length album produced entirely by Beatnick & K-Salaam. The project will be released on Duck Down Records, and it will hit stores on September 25th.

Whether you realize it or not, Murs is an O.G. and a legend in the West Coast Hip-Hop game; he’s collaborated with the best of them, and he gets mad respect from cats all across the nation. He even teamed up with Guerilla Union to start the Paid Dues concert series – which is a big deal in the Hip-Hop community.

Fashawn is one of the best emcees from the Left Coast, and I’ve been itching to hear a proper release from Fashawn since he dropped Boy Meets World – his classic debut album. He’s dropped a few mixtapes in the interim, but I’m glad to see that he’s dropping another official studio album. I’m hoping – even though it may be a little ambitious – that Fash will drop his Sophomore album The Ecology sometime this year; any time that Fashawn and Exile team up, it’s an instant recipe for greatness.

You can peep the album’s lead single (“Flash Gordan”) and tracklisting down below.

I feel like the lord is constantly answering my prayers pertaining to this album. I just put up a post the other day about Sky finishing his upcoming album A Dream Deferred, and today he dropped the lead single – “Jansport Strings”. 9th Wonder lays down a laid back beat full of jovial horns, and as expected, Skyzoo spits cryptographic rhymes about growing up with his friends in Brooklyn and “earning his Jansport Strings”.

Skyzoo provided some insight into the meaning of this track:

“The idea behind Jansport Strings is not based on it being literal, but more so in the figurative sense. As a kid in NY, the strings on your Jansport bag were a sign of power and presence. Kids would steal the strings off of each other’s bags and burn the tips to prevent getting robbed of them once they got them.”

“The song is a 3 minute auto-bio of me as a kid in Brooklyn and seeing more than my friends and I had bargained for. In essence, my Jansport strings tied it all together, seeing what we all saw and what it made us. The ending is a clip from Video Music Box, the legendary NYC video show run by DJ Ralph McDaniels. This episode in particular was the debut of Chi-Ali’s ‘Age Ain’t Nothin But A Number’. Seeing that video that day on this episode of VMB made me start rhyming. This clip was literally the moment that changed my life”.

It was also announced today that A Dream Deferred will be dropping on October 2nd via Duck Down Music and Skyzoo’s new label imprint The Faculty ; I’m so happy that it’s only a couple months away. I’ve been waiting on this album since Live From The Tape Deck dropped, and even though that was only two years ago, it seems like far more than that. If Sky’s previous work is any indication of listeners can expect, then A Dream Deferred will change the way that we interpret lyrics… again.

It still seems kind of weird to see Slug on Twitter, but following him definitely has its privileges; he’s funny, and he definitely shows mad support for other artists. Earlier today, Mr. Daley posted this track, and even though I’ve never heard of these two cats (I probably would if I lived in Minneapolis), I’m feeling it a great deal. Some of you listening may recognize the piano melody on this track from Fun’s hit “We Are Young”; I absolutely love the sample flip that DJ Sidereel came up with, and I think it’s the perfect feel for these cats to bust some catchy lines over.

Those who know me are aware that I love local music, and tracks like this are the perfect example. Minneapolis is such a magnificent city that is filled with unlimited musical potential, and it’s incredible to see just how deep the city’s talent runs. This is the type of stuff that Terry was talking about in his post about compassion in Hip-Hop; I know for a fact he would love to see that Slug is reaching out a helping hand to some local up-and-comers from the 612. I look forward to hearing more material from Kaleem & Mastermind iDV.